Baroness Julia Neuberger’s work as a rabbi helps guide her decisions as a voting member of the House of Lords. Born Julia Schwab, Neuberger studied for ordination at Great Britain’s reform seminary, Leo Baeck College, before becoming Britain’s second woman rabbi in 1977. Throughout her career, she has balanced pulpit work with a love of scholarship. After ordination, she took on a rabbinic post at South London Liberal Synagogue and a professorship at Leo Baeck College, where she taught for twenty years. In 2003 she was made a Dame of the British Empire, and was elevated to Baroness the following year. As a Member of Parliament, she serves beside Church of England bishops, and provides a different perspective on religious and ethical issues from them. She has also been active on Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee, where she helped draft the bill regulating the use of human tissue and embryos in 2008. In 2011 she became senior rabbi of the West London Synagogue, where she still serves as of 2016.